project proposal
Project Title: “In the Eye of the Storm: Understanding Mental Health in Teens”
Product: For my senior project, I am planning to create and publish a book to help others understand the mental health struggles that teenagers go through. I am going to divide the book into sections, each focusing on a different common mental disorder. I will research each disorder and write a detailed summary describing it. Additionally, I am going to gather quotes and testimonies from teenagers who are struggling with their mental health. For every disorder that I write about, I am also going to create a collage and write a poem that represents how each illness makes its victims feel. I am going to create the collages by asking teenagers who struggle with each disorder questions such as “what images, objects, colors, smells, etc. make you think of your disorder?” and then incorporating their answers into an artistic representation of their struggle. For the poems, I am going to attempt to write an abstract, moving poem that describes how each mental disorder makes people feel. This book would demonstrate my learning by showing a detailed summary, well-thought-out collage, and creative poem for each mental disorder I research.
Focus: My driving question is “what does it really feel like to struggle with mental health, and how can I help others understand it?”. Essentially, I want this book to not only inform others about mental health, but also help them empathize with those who suffer from mental disorders; I plan on accomplishing this through the use of artistic design and poetry. The goal of this project is to help people truly understand how different mental illnesses affect those afflicted, from their physical symptoms to their emotional state. My essential questions are “how do I go about publishing a book?, how am I going to put together a detailed collage for each mental disorder?, what is the actual definition of each mental illness?, how can I use this information to form a descriptive summary?, what specific questions will I use to survey teens about how their mental disorder makes them feel?, who will be my mentor for this project?, how long should this book be?, how can I design a professional and creative cover for this book?, what software will I use to create the collages?, how will I organize and divide the book into different sections?, and are there any specific requirements that I must meet to publish a book?”.
Timeline: I believe it will take me about five months to finish my book, and an additional month to publish it and order hard copies. I plan on deciding which mental illnesses I’m going to write about, doing research, and compiling information for about a month; hopefully, I will have this finished by the beginning of October. Then, I’m going to write out survey questions, decide who I want to survey, send them my questions, and engage in dialogue with them so I can fully understand their struggles with mental health. This will help me brainstorm ideas for my collages and poems. I predict this will take about a month and a half, and if everything is going according to plan, I would be completing this step by the middle of November. At the end of November, I will begin to create the collages and write the poems. Since I want this to be the creative focus of my project, I plan on spending a good amount of time planning out and assembling the collages. I hope to have this fully completed by the end of December. In January, I will combine my research, collages, poems, and quotes, organizing them into book format. I will also design the cover of my book, edit it, and polish off any details during this time. I will publish my book in February. After I order hard copies of my book, it will take a few weeks for them to arrive. Additionally, if I decide to put my book on Amazon, it will take a little under a week to fully upload and be available for purchase. I predict this will be finished by the end of February, and my project will be fully completed by March. This is just my tentative plan, but I believe it’s a realistic time frame.
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Purpose: I am considering being either a book editor or a mental health counselor when I graduate, so I thought this project would be the perfect combination of those two ideas. I’ll gain experience in the world of editing publishing, and I’ll also learn to better understand and empathize with teens who struggle with mental health. Personally, I don’t have any major mental health disorders, but if I choose a career as a mental health counselor, I want to have a thorough understanding of how it really feels to suffer from a mental illness. I love reading and writing, and I find psychology and mental health fascinating, so I thought this project would be really exciting for me.
Prior Knowledge: I have no prior experience with editing or publishing books, but I have written some poetry before, so I feel well-prepared in that area. I have also taken an Abnormal Psychology course, so I have a basic knowledge of various psychological disorders; however, I would like to gain a deeper knowledge of how these illnesses affect lives in the real world.
What Problem I’m Solving in the Community: I am hoping that this book will help those who find it difficult to understand their loved ones who struggle with mental health. I don’t think that this can be accomplished by simply searching “what is depression, anxiety, etc?” online; I believe that it requires empathy. I want this book to help people understand mental illness not just by giving them scientific definitions, but also by giving them art, poetry, and individual quotes from those who suffer.
Stretching Comfort Limits: This topic stretches my comfort limits greatly. I am considering being a mental health counselor because I’m fascinated by psychology and I love helping people, but I can sometimes be a little shy. I want to become more comfortable talking about difficult subjects and communicating with others. This feels like a risk to me because I don’t want to offend my friends and relatives by asking them to describe their mental health problems in detail to me. I believe that working on this skill will help prepare me for my future, no matter what my career is. I’m predominantly interested in being either a book editor or a mental health counselor, and both of these fields require excellent communication skills, so I hope to gain some experience with this project.